Valproic acid (VPA) and its primary amide: Valpromide (VPD) are relatively new drugs that are now in common use: VPA, as an antiepileptic drug, and VPD as an antiepileptic and antipsychotic drug. VPA shows the shortest elimination half-life of all currently used antiepileptics. Its t.sub.1/2 ranges between 6 to 17 hours in adults and 4 to 14 hours in children. This relatively short half-life of VPA is the reason for the frequently reported fluctuations in VPA plasma levels in chronic therapy. Such fluctuations are inconvenient in the management of epileptic patients and are a serious drawback in therapy.
Valpromide (VPO) is reported to biotransform to VPA before reaching the systemic circulation and therefore can be considered to be a VPA pro-drug. It also demonstrates slower absorption rate than valproic acid, resulting in fewer fluctuations in the drug plasma level, during chronic valpromide treatment.
A way of minimizing the oscillations in VPA plasma levels is by administering the drug in a sustained-release formulation.
Despite the many marketed VPA formulations, no satisfactory sustained-release dosage form of VPA exists at present. There exists a report about a once-a-day treatment of epilepsy with a sodium valproate enteric-coated tablet: A. Covanis and P. M. Jeavons, Dev. Med. Child Neurol., 22, 202 (1980). The benefit of a VPA sustained release dosage form of a VPA-prodrug is well realized as it decreases the dosage regimen of the drug in chronic therapy.